Encroachment of the agricultural border
Agricultural encroachment and human settlement in forests is a problem that affects forest areas worldwide. In Nicaragua, the tropical rainforest has been reduced considerably in the last 50 years. The Southeast of Nicaragua has not been the exception.
The Indio-Maíz Biological Reserve is in danger due to the constant arrival of settlers from the interior of the country, mainly from the Chontales, Nueva Guinea, Bluefields and Rama towns.
Change in the landscape due to the destruction of forests in the Southeast of Nicaragua.
The advance of single-crop cultivation such as African oil palm (right) in the buffer zone of the Indio-Maíz Reserve also promotes the invasion of the core zone.
These families, accustomed to a migratory life, repeat productive practices that threaten the existence of forests and their biodiversity. One of them is chop-slash-burn through which clears the forest area to make way for basic grains (rice, beans, corn).
After two or three years the land loses fertility and is then converted into pasture and new areas are burned to continue production.
To learn more about the current problems of the reserve we share the following video, where we show images and testimonies of people from the area concerned about what is happening:
